Muv-Luv Extra
its super plain, its pretty easy to see why people don't like it seeing as it does pretty much nothing interestingly at all. like it feels like the most by-the-books dating sim ever made. the general advice people get is 'Do the main 2 roots (Sumika & Meiya) and ignore the rest' but Chizuru's route is easily the best, the novel's writing stops feeling like a cartoon and starts to genuinely get alright.

Muv-Luv Unlimited
i've seen people say 'Unlimited is actually good', 'Unlimited saves the whole thing' or even 'Unlimited > Alternative'. imma be real, Unlimited is also completely plain. the problem is that Extra and Unlimited are written by the same people at the same time. they aren't learning from any writing mistakes because they haven't been made yet. the general idea of Unlimited is that the main character wakes up from his Dating Sim life to find himself in an apocalyptic alien invasion where locations and characters have been retained. you end up with a character that knows nothing, and yet knows things about characters that they wouldn't dare tell anyone. as you can guess, the weird character nuance isn't explored convincingly and it feels more akin to a high-school drama performance.

As a Whole
this is the cool part about Muv-Luv, the whole thing i reckon is basically analogous to late 1930s-40s japan, just random kids enjoying high school and then being forced to participate is a world-altering war as a kamikaze pilot and clearly being on the losing side. like thats interesting! and then its written with the grace and candour of a horny japanese man because the other kamikaze pilots have big tits and big tempers. except for Tamase.

Muv-Luv Extra: A shockingly good stand alone romance story when you accept it on its terms. Yes its a dating sim and yes there is lots of borderline cartoon tier stuff, but there is a real sincerity that shows through the longer you play with some genuinely emotional moments. Like despite having actual sex scenes its somehow still less horny then the average anime. It also helps that the alternative routes actually greatly change the story and run the gambit of more wacky to more dark and down to earth. There also enough mystery in the form of the Mitsurugi group and the foreshadowing with Yuuko's alternate reality theories provide the edge needed to link this game to its follow up. Really I think this game is overhated and stands alone as a fun and sincere romance story with some solid plot beats in particular the Chizuru route is a very good drama. I think part of the issue is people come into it expecting it to be a satire and deconstruction when it isn't, but you accept it for it is it is a good time. 7/10

Muv-Luv Unlimited: This is the part of the package which makes Muv-Luv well known. Its the same set of characters but in a far darker set of circumstances. I think its an interesting idea to have most of the characters be developed so you know their personalities and the story can instead focus on building the new world and how these personalities are altered by this new lore. As a world it combines a lot of influences with the most obvious being the Evangelion visual influence and the isekai like plot, but don't let that fool you as this is way different and more of a military sci fi story then anything. If you come into this thinking it'll be a Gundam or Eva like mech action story you will be disapointed as the story is more about the training, mentally, tactics, and morality of war then actually fighting battles. really though despite the more dire circumstances the story is still pretty light hearted with the characters being mostly separated from the war and its tragedies. I do like how subversive this story ends up being as it doesn't just subvert you expectations by making things more grim and gritty but also by taking things in a direction you don't expect. This leads to the big issue with this story being that it is very insubstantial. The whole thing feels very deliberately unsatisfying as a way to set up Alternate. It doesn't help that the routes this time around are all nearly identical with only really 2 minor sections changing, which all have the same outcome but different flavor text and each one gives you a little more insight into the girl's personality. Its all very tedious to go through with unskippable cutscenes and even the secret ending which I was told would be super important ended up as just another vague cliffhanger. While Extra imo perfectly works on its own Unlimited feels like its just setting up the pieces for Alterative with much of the world building and mysteries being deliberatly unsolved. 6/10

Muv-Luv Extra is servicable as a stand-alone experience, but like most other people, I merely played this to get the most out of Muv-Luv Alternative. If it were a stand-alone game, I would probably have quit after the first ending i received.

I'm personally not big on romance VNs, but some of the characters made the read an enjoyable experience overall.
The banter between the MC and his childhood friend, Sumika was my favorite part.
However, I had a hard time caring about most of the major events during the course of the game. The lacrosse game being the lowest point for me, and that seemed to drag on forever.

Since I haven't played Unlimited or Alternative yet, I cannot say how important this game is for the rest of the series, but nevertheless, my personal recommendation would be to only play this if you have plans on seeing the story to the end. Unless you really enjoy romance VNs that is.

Well then, it's time for Unlimited.